LOCAL authorities and developers need to unlock the “untapped potential” of small sites if Government housing targets are to be met, a new report has warned.

The nationwide research, by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) and the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU), found that nearly 90 per cent of councils felt that building one million new homes in England by 2020 would be “impossible” due to barriers such as a lack of planning resources.

But the head Bradford’s Property Forum said the small builders ideally placed to develop small sites, identified in the report as those with 30 units or less, had already “gone under” or been priced out of the market.

The research found that more than half of Councils across the country delivered fewer than 40 per cent of homes on small sites. The main barrier to development identified by local authorities was the poor quality of planning applications for such sites, with small builders citing the “heavy-handed” nature of the planning process.

One of the report’s main recommendations was for Government to give Councils the power to set and vary planning fees locally to allow extra revenue to be ring-fenced and used to try and guarantee an improved level of service.

Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive of the LGiU, said: “There is a large untapped potential in small sites, but resource and capacity pressures in planning departments make it difficult to unlock. We need new approaches and new partnerships to build the homes we need. By working with a wider range of local builders, Councils can stimulate local economic growth.”

Stephen McManus, chair of the Bradford Property Forum, said raising planning fees would not solve the problem.

He said: “The issue is that since the financial crisis, a lot of small builders have gone under, they are just not there anymore and are the ones that are really struggle to raise the finance.

“The Government has been listening to big national builders, all the help is geared towards mass volume.

“Large developers will look at sites with a minimum of 50 houses, even though people might prefer to live on smaller sites rather than big estates.

“Planning applications involve a host of surveys, and they cost money. One company told us they spend more on planning fees than they do on bricks. An application for a five-acre site can cost £100,000, and then you’re not guaranteed permission to develop it.

“Unless you’ve got a big cash reserve, it’s a struggle. The Government would need to offer some financial support, maybe some kind of loan agreement to get the process started.”

In the core strategy of its Local Plan, Bradford Council has set a target of building 42,100 homes across the district over the next three years. Around 15,000 homes could be accommodated on brownfield land, alongside controversial plans to release green belt land for around 11,000 homes.

The authority states that less than two per cent of the district’s green belt land would be developed, but the plan has been held up after Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, wrote to Planning Minister Gavin Barwell to raise concerns over the loss of green belt within his constituency.

Mr Davies said he was more concerned with having a brownfield-first policy rather than the size of individual sites, but added: “There must be some small pockets of land across the district that could ease the pressure on green belt land, and I’d be all for using those.”

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, executive member for planning at the Labour-led Council said the authority had done all it could within the Local Plan to take into account the contribution small sites could make to meeting development targets in a sustainable way.

He said: “For the first time we will be identifying and allocating sites right down to a threshold of five units or 0.2 hectares, maximising the use of small sites in sustainable locations close to services, infrastructure and transport links and in so doing reducing the need for larger green field sites.

“The Council’s Bradford City Centre Area Action plan is now well advanced and within that plan there are a number of small sites which have been allocated and promoted which fall around or below the 30 dwelling threshold offering opportunities for a range of types of companies and housing providers.”